Norfolk: Hempstead and Eccles-by-the-Sea

William White's History, Gazetteer, and Directory of Norfolk 1883

HEMPSTEAD and ECCLES-BY-THE-SEA are two ancient parishes, now forming
consolidated (for poor law purposes) but distinct ecclesiastical parishes.
They are in Smallburgh union, Happing hundred, Happing and Tunstead petty
sessional division, North Walsham county court district, Norwich bankruptcy
district, Stalham polling district of North Norfolk, Waxham rural deanery,
and Norfolk archdeaconry. The united parish has a rateable value of
£2055, and a gross estimated rental of £2307.

HEMPSTEAD is a village 8 miles E. by S. of North Walsham, and 3½
miles
N.E. by E. of Stalham. Mrs. Blake, of Bramerton, owns most of the soil,
and is lady of the manor. Hempstead and Lessingham both belonged to
Godwin, Earl of Kent, the father of Harold. Hempstead eventually came
into the possession of the family of De Colekirk.

The CHURCH (St. Andrew) is an ancient thatched fabric, consisting of nave,
chancel, south porch, and square embattled tower with three bells, and was
restored in 1879, at a cost of £800. The twelve lower panels of the
chancel screen have painted figures of saints upon them, and the font is
ornamented with the symbols of the Evangelists.

The living is a rectory, valued in the King's Book at £7.2s.6d., and
now at £552, with that of Lessingham annexed to it. It is in the
patronage of King's College, Cambridge, and incumbency of the Rev. John
Eyre Yonge, M.A., who has a neat brick residence near the church, built
nearly sixty years ago. The glebe is 47A.3R.34P., and the tithes of
Hempstead were commuted in 1840, for £290 per annum.

The poor's pasture consists of nine acres, let for £12, and was
awarded at enclosure. The poor have also the interest of £32, and a
yearly rent of 3s.4d., left by Mr. A.C. Grey.

ECCLES-BY-THE-SEA, 9 miles E. by S. of North Walsham, is a decayed parish,
once a noted fishing town, with a lordship of 2000 acres, but so wasted by
the incursions of the ocean, that the inhabitants, in their petition for a
reduction of taxes, in 1605, complained that they had then only 14 houses,
and 300 acres of land, 'the rest being all destroyed by the sea, together
with the church.' It had only 17 inhabitants in 1881, and comprises 253
acres of land divided into two farms, occupied by John Clements and
Jeremiah Whittaker. Charles Lombe, Esq., is lord of the manor.

Eccles CHURCH (St. Mary) was destroyed about 300 years ago, as noticed
above; but the tower and part of the walls are still standing. The tower
is round at the base and octagonal above, and is about 9 feet in diameter.
The remains of the walls of the church are about 6 feet high and 3 feet
thick, but were entirely covered by the accumulated sand hills, which had
been thrown up by the sea and served as barriers against the encroachments
of the tides, till the great storm of November, 1862, swept the greater
portion of them away.

The benefice, a vicarage, valued in the King's Book at £8, is in the
gift of the Rev. H.E. Lombe. The Rev. J.F. Osborn, of Norwich, is the
incumbent, and has a yearly rent-charge of £58.10s. in lieu of tithes;
but owing to the want of a church, this is a sinecure benefice, and the
inhabitants use the church at Hempstead, with which parish they have long
been united for the support of the poor.